Minnesota Wild at Nashville Predators: Game Preview, Tale of the Tape, How to watch

We’re making history!

The Minnesota Wild set a franchise record 10 game winning streak Friday night against the New York Rangers. Now that their Christmas break is over they play the Nashville Predators tonight in Nashville for the second time in 12 days. Back on Dec. 15th the Wild beat the Preds 5-2 and extended their win streak to 6 games; tonight they look to extend their streak to a season and franchise high 11 games.

Smashville Preds

The Nashville Predators have struggled a bit this season. They are currently 15-13-5 good for 35 points and 4th place in the Central Division. They sit 11 points behind the Wild.

Scoring hasn’t been a huge problem for the Predators as Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Johansen are tied for the team lead with 23 (9-14=23) points in 33 games. Right behind them is teammate James Neal who has 20 (14-6=20) points in 29 games. The three players currently on the roster that have 0 points are Miikka Salomaki (2 games played), Adam Pardy (4 games played) and Petter Granberg (5 games played). Goaltending has been very pedestrian. Pekka Rinne has a 13-9-4 record with a 2.49 GAA, .916 SV %, and 1 shutout. Juuse Saros has a 2-2-1 record with a 1.40 GAA, .950 SV %, and 0 shutouts.

If scoring and goaltending aren’t huge issues why are the Predators struggling so much? Opponents. They’re 0-1-0 against the Wild, 1-1-0 against the Jets, 2-1-0 against the Blues, 2-1-0 against the Blackhawks and 1-1-0 against the Stars. They have however beat divisional opponent (as has everyone else) Colorado Avalanche all three times they’ve played each other so far. They have to start winning more divisional games to improve in the standings.

Projected Lineup

Here is the Predator’s projected lineup courtesy of is the Predators projected lineup courtesy of dailyfaceoff.com

Minnesota Wild

The Wild played pretty well Friday night and the score sheet showed that.While getting out-shot badly in the third period in New York 12-1; they were tied with the Rangers at 9 shots in the first period, 14-11 in favor of the Rangers in the second and the 12-1 score effect onslaught they faced in the third while holding a sizable lead. Darcy Kuemper had a decent game with 31 saves, a .886 SV % and 3 goals against. Expect Devan Dubnyk back between the pipes this evening. Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Eric Staal all had 2+ points. Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba also found the back of the net.

Projected Lineup

Here’s the Wild’s projected lineup also courtesy of dailyfaceoff.com:

That’s all for today’s game preview, our gamethread posts at 6:30 pm central and puck drop is 7 pm central. Here’s today’s tale of the tape: